By 2017, United States beauty sales are estimated to reach $81.7 billion and online sales are rapidly growing. From early 2012 to early 2013, online beauty sales grew by 55%.  Consumers are beginning to value and trust online product reviews, how-to videos, testimonials and social media chatter.  Retailers need to take into account this rapidly growing online presence. At the same time, they need to optimize in-store strategies in order to pinpoint what’s most important to consumers as they shop. That’s where market research provides a boost.

A recent CivicScience consumer research study conducted from August 2014 to September 2014 illustrates what matters most to consumers when buying beauty products in a store versus online. For this study, CivicScience includes cosmetics, fragrance, hair, and skin care products – thereby providing applicability to both genders.

In-Store Buyers
Among the 5,151 respondents, roughly 62% of the respondents buy beauty products in a store. Of those making purchases in a store, 40% say seeing or touching the product is most important to them, 23% value the act of browsing and 21% enjoy taking home the purchase that day.
 
Every beauty brand and retailer will have a different growth and sales strategy. Whether retailers have a strong in-store presence, a strong online presence or both, demographic and psychographic attributes of buyers could be very valuable. Let’s first start with in-store beauty buyers.

Since in-store shoppers value seeing and touching the product the most, we will focus our attention on this group. 73% of those are women, 60% are over 35 years old (although only 52% are parents), and 56% have a household income of $35K to $125K.

When compared to others, consumers who like to see or touch the products are more likely to have had or would like to have elective surgery for cosmetic or weight-loss purposes. People who value seeing/touching the product the most are 32% more likely to be influenced by fashion trends than those who value the act of browsing or taking home their purchase right away.

By advertising the latest trends and the ease of testing or trying new products, retailers may be able to reach the 40% who are shopping in stores and care about seeing or touching the products. Also, playing up the idea that specific products can rival cosmetic surgery may also grab consumers’ attention, translating into additional sales.

Online Buyers
Switching gears to those who make beauty purchases online, only 32% do so, from the 6,608 respondents. Of the online buyers, 22% value the convenience of online purchases and 19% value access to consumer reviews.

62% of consumers who value convenience are women. 64% are 35+ years old, 59% are parents, and 59% have a household income of $35K – $125K. People who value convenience are slightly more likely to own personal technology devices (smartphone, tablet, e-Reader) than others and are 55% more likely to be very loyal to their favorite brands than those who value access to reviews.

Retailers could play up the convenience aspect of purchasing beauty products online for those who have limited time to hit the stores. Since this group is also more likely to be brand loyal there is a chance they are purchasing the same item or brand each shopping visit; therefore, sending automated reminders when it’s time to refill or to schedule a recurring shipment plan would add even greater value. Also, posting customer reviews may help with sales. 

As the playing field changes and more consumers shop online, it’s important for retailers to understand how consumers shop for beauty products and what they value when shopping. Knowing their “psychographic make-up” (pardon the pun), as we started to illustrate here with data, can help give marketing even more of an edge.
 
About the expert
Laura Albert is a marketing data analyst at CivicScience, where she helps with the collection and analysis of real-time consumer insights data. She can be reached at: [email protected]